THE Stormers were their worst enemies on Friday evening in Belfast after conceding a yellow and red card that led to their downfall against Ulster in the United Rugby Championship.
Influential flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu copped the yellow, while captain Neethling Fouche received a red for a dangerous tackle, which opened the door for the home team to sneak the game.
Despite their fighting spirit, playing for most of the second half with 14 men, the Kaapse span came up short, losing 38-34 after a speedy start.
Looking at their 17-0 lead after 10 minutes, they probably should never have lost the game.
It was a quickfire start by the visitors, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu pulling the strings on the attack as No 8 Evan Roos and wing Ben Loader scored in the first six minutes.
The flyhalf added a deft drop goal between the five-pointers to get his side off to the best possible start at Kingspan Stadium.
Ulster then scored 17 unanswered points through three tries to tie the half 17-all when the sides went into the sheds.
Ulster flyhalf Jack Murphy scored right before the break when Feinberg-Mngomezulu received his yellow, while their fourth try three minutes after halftime paved the way for the home side to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
Only two tries were scored in Fouche’s absence, but how the tighthead prop was carded would’ve had Stormers' director of rugby John Dobson fuming.
He made head contact with the ball carrier, but Fouche was in a low tackling position with the player running into his forearm. Initially, referee Andrea Piardi said both players were low, but after some influence by the TMO, he reversed his decision.
Of the defeat, Dobson is quoted by SA Rugbymag as saying afterwards: “Disappointing [defeat] in the aspect that we thought we probably for large parts of the game were our own worst enemy.
“The start we had, we wanted to put pressure on them, keep the crowd quiet, take them out of the game. And it was deadly quiet for 17 minutes.
“I don’t know if we got complacent, but we certainly got ill-disciplined and didn’t work as hard in defence as we should have done... ”